Algorithm predicts when a driver will run a red light

WASHINGTON – You see it all the time. People running red lights. In fact, sometimes you see not just one driver dashing through the red, but multiple drivers, some of them causing accidents or just slowing the flow of traffic.

Now researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed an algorithm that predicts when a driver will blow through a red light.

It uses a car’s rate of deceleration and how far it is from the to determine whether the driver will run the light, according to The New York Times.

In tests in Virginia, it worked 85 percent of time with more than 15,000 approaching vehicles.

How would it work in real life? It could be used in smart car technology, in vehicle-to-vehicle communications, with one car sending a warning to another.